Zombiewood is a top-down dual stick zombie shooter. The zombie theme has stretched out so far now that it’s easy to predict what kinds of enemies appeared next in Zombiewood, but even with the clichéd theme, the concept for the game is surprisingly unique.

 Gameplay and Controls

Gun Bros was most likely the first popular dual-stick shooter game on the touch screen platform, and since then there have been plenty more. The main control concept in Zombiewood is nothing new, and follows the same controls as many other games on the market; you have two joysticks on either side of your device, one for moving your character, and the other for aiming your gun. In Zombiewood, your gun will only fire when you’re holding down on the gun aim-stick, and although you have an endless supply of ammo, you will have a limited amount of bullets in each clip, so reloading your weapons is an important aspect of Zombiewood’s gameplay.

Usually whilst playing Zombiewood the controls are nice and smooth, but every now and then they feel choppy, probably due to the overwhelming enemies on the screen. High end devices should have no problem playing this, but older devices, (even my dual-core tablet) will struggle to navigate through the menus and play through the levels smoothly for a considerable length of time.

Zombiewood is split into different levels with a few stages per level. Although most of the time the objective is to stay alive for as long as possible, or to kill a certain amount of zombies, occasionally there will be other main objectives, such as protecting monuments or destroying objects within the stage.

Each stage also has a bunch of secondary objectives such as using a certain weapon upgrade, or destroying a certain number of scenery pieces. Although none of the secondary objectives are needed to unlock the next stage, you will be awarded with a video reel after completing an objective, and each new level requires a set amount of video reels to be playable, meaning you may have to go back and play some older levels to collect more reels from secondary objectives if you missed them the first time round.

Upgrades, Movies, Arena, and the Cash Shop

Although the zombie genre is getting old, what I love about Zombiewood is that it has managed to include a new concept with the zombie theme. According to the story, you are an actor that stars in different films for money, and your director gives you a list of things you need to do for each scene in the movie.

Each scene constitutes to a stage, and each level counts as a scene, and once you complete a scene you’ll be awarded some experience points and a cash bonus. The same goes for completing a movie too, but once you’ve completed a movie, you’ll get a constant stream of cash from that movie; the first movie gives characters 500 coins every hour. I think this is a really neat feature, and allows players to earn royalties when they’re not playing the game.

As you earn money and level up, you’ll unlock new weapons to buy in the cash shop. Each weapon has a set amount of upgrades and you’ll be able to buy a variety of different weapon types such as pistols, sub machine guns and shotguns, once you unlock them and have the cash to buy them. The royalties from the movies make it easier to make cash than other freemium games, but there’s no hiding from the freemium content here either.

Like many other free games, Zombiewood has adopted a bar at the top of the screen that shows players their in-game cash, exp bar, and dollar amount. Dollars can be used to buy over-powered weapons, and although you can earn a few in-game, the majority of dollars will come from in-app purchases.

The last feature to be mentioned is the arena, which puts you against a horde of zombies with no real objective than to achieve the highest score you can within the time limit given. This mode is fun for a few extra minutes play after completing the story mode, but what’s cool about arena is the challenge system. You can place bets with your friends using the in-game dollars, and whoever achieves the highest score will win the bet, and the dollars placed in the bet. This is a good way to earn dollars through your friends, and you can easily challenge any one on your Gameloft Live friends list.

Graphics and Audio

The graphics in Zombiewood are spectacular. The game features cartoon cut scenes and the menus are very stylized. The theme carries on in-game too, and Zombiewood has this very caricature style art design, which is both humorous and original.

The audio is great, and Gameloft have once again managed to capture fitting sound effects to go with the game, and it’s clear that their development teams are really striving for a professional finish.

Like mentioned before, the game isn’t well optimized for older devices, and the controls seem a little unresponsive at times. The 3D graphics are pretty, but in my knowledge they don’t seem too graphically demanding, so it seems the optimization issues are down to Gameloft, and not the individual devices.

Summary:

Pros:

• Unique ‘movie’ concept
• Impressive, original art style
• Lots of enemies
• Huge re-playability level

Cons:

• Poorly optimized for older devices
• Freemium content still apparent
• Controls a little choppy at times

Download Zombiewood:

• For iOS
• For Android

The post Zombiewood Game Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

 Although this review was done using an Android handset, it’s likely that the iOS version offers a very similar experience.

Judge Dredd vs. Zombies is a top-down shooter developed by Rebellion games, a well-known PC and console developer. It’s no doubt that the game has been released to help promote the new Dredd movie, but with that said, the gameplay is completely apart from the story within the movie, but the game can be enjoyed without any regards to the Judge Dredd story or universe.

Gameplay and Controls

I’m not so sure what’s appealing about zombies anymore, but they still seem to sell extremely well. In fact, if we were to ever fall victim of a zombie apocalypse, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all boxed up and sold as exotic pets. Even with the less-than-original enemy designs, the combat system is a little different to other top-down shooters, and it’s something I’ve taken a big liking to.

In many other top-down shooters on a touch screen, we’re usually given a dual stick control system where one stick controls your character’s movement, whilst the other stick controls the direction of your onslaught of never-ending bullets. In Judge Dredd, you’re given one stick for movement, and a static button for firing. The game has a very accurate auto aiming feature that usually targets the closest and most dangerous enemies first, and also allows you to quickly change target by tapping enemies on the screen. It’s not doing all the work for you, but it makes it easy to hit your targets, which is especially helpful considering the somewhat low ammo supply.

While these controls aren’t exactly new, it’s the way Rebellion has handled each of the separate weapon mechanics in-game that make things unique. You’ll be able to buy the rather clichéd weapon types within game with coins earned from each stage. Each weapon has various starting stats such as reload speed, fire range, and damage that can be further upgraded using in-game cash. What makes these weapons different is that each weapon type has a distinct method of firing. Shotguns require you to get up in the zombies face to do the most damage, whereas the sniper has an advanced aiming mechanism that with good timing allows you to take one-hit kills at the oncoming zombies. There’s also an average assault rifle for the classic pray n’ spray action. Each weapon seems to be useful in different situations, and it’s extremely frustrating that we cannot equip more than one weapon at any given time.

Game Modes and Other Content

Judge Dredd features a basic campaign that challenges you through increasingly difficult stages and arenas where you’ll be asked to complete repetitive tasks such as killing a certain number of zombies or reaching a finish zone. The campaign doesn’t really have much of a backstory, but each zone has a small box of text giving information on what Dredd is apparently doing within the eight stages in each zone. There is also an arena mode which allows you to choose different unlocked locations to fight in. The arena mode works very similarly to the campaign mode, just without the linear progression.

When you complete a stage you’ll be given a star rating. The star rating is based upon the amount of points you have collected within the stage. Each zombie kill will get you a small sum of points, but if you’re reaching for three stars you’ll need to kill zombies quickly to rack up a multiplier which will be displayed in the top left hand of the screen. If you stop killing zombies for a quick breather, your multiplier bar will deplete. Luckily there are shield pick-ups within each level that give you a few extra points and keep your multiplier going whilst you’re out of the action.

One of the biggest concerns I had about Judge Dredd vs. Zombies is the excessive difficulty curve of the game. The first zone was fairly easy to complete, but as soon as I had reached the second zone, I found it almost impossible without any upgrades and would quickly die within seconds of starting the stage. This also points to the heavy freemium aspects of the game. There are only a certain amount of credits you can earn from each stage, and after getting a three-star rating on every stage, it’s pretty much impossible to earn any more without spending real cash.

Audio and Graphics Layout

Aside from the dull-looking zombie models, the rest of the game is actually quite visually impressive. The 3D stages have been well-lit and each stage has an overall design separate from the others. Each zone will have a different theme, which mixes things up a little and keeps the background scenery from getting dull.

If you’re a fan of Judge Dredd, you’ll be happy to know that the layout of the application has captured the style of the Dredd universe nicely, and it feels very close to home in terms of futuristic aesthetics and the dark vibe that the 2000AD comics give off.

The music and sound effects within Dredd vs. Zombies is on par as well, and like many action games for mobile, it really completes the experience when playing with the sound switched on.

Summary

Pros:

• Interesting weapon mechanics
• Controls are smooth and easy to control
• Nice graphics
• Plenty of stages and levels

Cons:

• Game becomes frustratingly difficult
• Only one weapon can be equipped
• Zombie theme getting old
• Leaning on the ‘freemium-heavy’ side

Judge Dredd vs. Zombies can be downloaded on both iOS and Android.

Download for iOS

Download for Android

The post Judge Dredd vs. Zombies Game Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.